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3.29.2014

My last two weeks of Instagram photos. The stories behind them. And a bonus feature or two. That's what this is. No biggie.

After the banquet, Mom and I went to Dunn Bros to work on thank you notes and have some mother daughter time.

JD and I went on a date to Four Daughters Vineyard and Winery. We hadn't been there before; it was really good. We sampled some wines (he prefers sweet, I prefer a dry red) and ordered our favorite of the bunch to go along with dinner, a thin crust artichoke and brie pizza. Yum!

I'm not Irish, but I got in the spirit.

I've been looking for just the right pillow slip-covers to replace my old torn ones. I found these at Shop-Ko and I knew they were just right.

It's pretty amazing how much joy new pillowcases can bring me.

I laughed when I saw this.

It made me think of the fruit salads that Kaitlin used to make. (Not because of the wine part, but because of the fruit salad part.)

[bonus feature:]

When Kaitlin was little, The Wiggles were popular. They might still be popular, I don't know. Thankfully I don't know.

Of course Kaitlin would want to make fruit salad every day. It was her specialty!

I wanted to encourage her desire to work in the kitchen, so I let her make her fruit salad to accompany whatever dinner we were having. At first I directed her fruit salad making. But then, as she became more confident, I let her make her own fruit salad concoctions.

When she thought it was a good idea to add American cheese to the salad, I let her know that I doubted if it belonged in a fruit salad.

When she declared that she wanted to add lunch meat, I explained that she'd crossed the line. And yet, she was so insistent! And so excited about her fruit salad ingredient choices!

How could I say no?

That is the year JD and I were front runners for the Academy Award in the category of: Best Acting as we ate Kaitlin's "fruit" salad with anything she could think to put in it.

All our friends who came for dinner and were served fruit/luncheon meat/cheese/peanut salad were like this:

but Kaitlin was like this:

So for me it was a win.

[end bonus feature]

I had to steal this picture of my sister's because look at this!:

At her birthday lunch (which I sadly was not at) she met Bill Murray who was eating at the same restaurant not far from them. How cool is that?

She approached him for a photo, telling him that it was her birthday, and he shoved his chair away from the table and slapped his knee and told her to sit down. Then he told his friends he was with to take a picture with his camera, too. My mom was taking a picture of them and he told her to sit down on his other knee. So that is the story behind this photo.

While Bethany was on the phone with our brother, Grant, who lives in New Hampshire, we brought out the cake so that he could sing Happy Birthday to her with us.

I can't believe my little sister is 35. Crayzee. And then mom told me that my little brother is turning 40 this year. I was like WHAT?!

3.14.2014

The Southeast Minnesota FCA banquet was on Sunday night. So pretty much the whole weekend was spent getting ready for the banquet. I was in charge of the signage for the sponsors. I was a little bit frustrated when I got there and they had messed them up and then I had to show them how to do their job.

We transported the silent auction goodies and somehow got John in the car too.

It was encouraging to see everyone there in support of the ministry.

I got this in the mail. Totally surprised. It was a thank you gift from (in)courage for being on the (in)mercy team, helping raise funds for the Mercy House in Kenya. I love the necklace. Of course I had to check out the vintage pearl website.

And a basketball necklace... and a softball necklace... and hopefully not a soccer necklace.

Or maybe just one necklace with all the sports' charms.

Need!

(Are you reading this Coach Bickle?)

I doodled some hands. I found a "doodle a day" thingie (game?) on Instagram. I enjoyed doing the photo a day thing, and I just might do it again, but I thought it would be good to do some doodling.

It's under the hashtag #sadoodleaday if you are interested.

So, the next day the doodle assignment was "monster." And I was a little bit like "what the am I going to draw for 'monster'?"

It just so happened that I had to do some training for work on Wednesday and Thursday. The government entity known as HUD has a whole bunch of regulations that we have to follow when we certify that someone needs a subsidy.

It's a little confusing to begin with, and now they are changing the TRACS form 202C to 202D so we need to be up on it when the changes roll out at some undetermined date in the future that keeps getting pushed back because government.

Sometimes it feels like a monster to figure out and stay on top of.

And then I knew what I had to doodle for monster.

I'm @annebickle on Instagram, linking up with @jeannettg for InstaFriday.

3.07.2014

I finally got around to putting the pictures back on the stairwell wall after we painted. I added some more nail holes photos to what I had up there before. Putting it all together was like a puzzle. I love puzzles! Looking at all those photos brings back memories. Memories I get to see every time I go up and down the stairs.

I did not, however, put up that Ohio Stadium picture or the Buckeye Blvd sign. I sure did get a kick out of them, though. That boy of ours. Such a sense of humor. I saw him putting them up. He had such a twinkle in his eye as he did it. It warmed my heart.

Look at those cute little kids, too. Did I mention I love seeing them every time I go up and down the stairs?

[bonus feature:]

That mirror is the tile mirror that I made in 2011 when I started my journey back to creative. My first foray into clay. I wrote about it here.

[end bonus feature]

We had dinner at Oma and Opa's on Saturday and we played Wise and Otherwise. So much laughter ensues every time we play it.

I'm trying to practice gratitude. Especially when I might not feel very thankful. #intentionalgratitude

I drove up to our house and saw the by now all too familiar sight of our mailbox practically buried by snow and I thought about how grateful I am that I can park inside a garage that is attached to our house. That's something to be thankful for in the midst of this record breaking winter.

It's not too hard to be thankful for friends like Christine who has been following my art-journal class/journey and gifted me some art supplies she doesn't use anymore. I mean, how thoughtful is that?! I can't wait to put them to use! (Those phrase stamps and those bird stamps are just per.fect.)

I'm thankful for this girl, who I got to have lunch with on Monday with my mom. I have so much fun with her.

And I'm so thankful for my mom who picked her up from school and brought her all the way to Zumbrota for her ortho appointment and then back to school again. She's the best.

I'm really ready to see some green. But I'm still taken by the beauty of this scene.

On the one hand it's the worst winter in 30 years. #polarvortex
On the other hand, "Thank God we haven't had to experience this kind of winter in 30 years!" #intentionalgratitude

They decided to promote "pimping joy" this first week of March. (It's really touching why. Read about it here.) All week I've been listening to some pretty awesome testimonials of people who chose joy and who chose to share joy. This one was my favorite.

After hearing that, I was like, "man! I need to spread some joy this week!"

So Thursday, on my way to work, I decided to stop at the McDonald's drive-thru so that I could pay for the person behind me. I was a little nervous that I couldn't afford it because we are so tight. But I figured it'd be worth it.

When I pulled up to the drive-thru no one pulled up behind me. I was debating on whether I should just pay for my own and drive off or if I should just wait until someone pulled up behind me. I decided to wait. I didn't have to wait long because just as I pulled up to the first window, a woman in a crossover vehicle pulled up behind me.

I have no idea what happened after I paid for her order because I drove off. I'm pretty sure I put a smile on the crossover vehicle woman's face, maybe even the McDonald's worker woman's face.

But I had a smile in my heart all day. That's the thing about doing stuff like that--as a wise person once said, "it's better to give than to receive."

[end bonus feature]

I'm @annebickle on Instagram & Twitter.Linking up with @jeannettg for InstaFriday.